ER Docs: Don’t Text And Walk, Skate — Or Cook
CHICAGO — The American College of Emergency Physicians is warning of the danger of accidents involving people trying to walk and text at the same time.
And it’s not just walking that can be dangerous.
In an alert issued this week, the ER doctors cite rising reports from doctors around the country of injuries involving text-messaging pedestrians, bicyclists, Rollerbladers, even motorists.
Most involve scrapes, cuts and sprains from texters who walked into lampposts or walls or tripped over curbs. 
“People are texting and they trip and fall on their faces - usually people in their 20s. We see a lot of face, chin, mouth (and) eye injuries from falls,” said Dr. James Adams, of Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago.
There are even reports of deaths.
Dr. Matthew Lewin, of the University of California San Francisco Hospital in San Francisco, saw a woman in her 20s step off a curb and get struck by a pickup truck.
“You could tell she saw the truck at the last moment because her cell phone was dropped right where she was struck just off the curb, and she was thrown about 20 or 30 feet. … It was horrifying,” he said. “I was amazed to hear she survived all the way to trauma center but died (in) the ER.”
The ER group also said people should never text while driving and should avoid talking on a cell phone or texting while doing other physical activities.
“We think we’re multitasking, but we’re not,” said Dr. Patrick Walsh, a California emergency physician. “You’re focusing on one task for a split second, then focusing on another one, and with something moving 40 mph like a car, it just takes a couple of seconds to be hit.”